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Lugansk Republic defense minister elected PM - Novorossiya press center

Since mid-August, Plotnisky has been acting LPR leader

MOSCOW, August 21, /ITAR-TASS/. Igor Plotnitsky, who earlier was the defense minister of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), has been elected by parliament to the post of the LPR prime minister, reads a statement by the Novorossiya press center obtained by Itar-Tass on Thursday.

Since mid-August, Plotnisky has been acting LPR leader.

Former LPR head Valery Bolotov said on August 14 that he would resign due to a wound he had received. However, he said he was “not going to leave the front.”

Bolotov also said that after consultations with the LPR executive and legislative authorities, the decision was made to offer Plotnitsky the post of the republic’s leader.

In line with the law of the Lugansk Republic, the LPR head’s resignation entails resignation of the Council of Ministers. In line with the same law, the head of the republic may combine his post and the premier’s post.

Earlier, Bolotov said the LPR is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. In his words, in the current circumstances, the LPR leadership should work to the maximum.

Troops loyal to Kiev and local militias in the southeastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk regions are involved in fierce clashes as the Ukrainian armed forces are conducting a military operation to regain control over the breakaway territories, which on May 11 proclaimed their independence at local referendums and now call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics.

During the military operation, conducted since mid-April, Kiev has used armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in it. Many buildings have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have had to flee Ukraine’s embattled southeast.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry sent a convoy of some 270 trucks with relief supplies for residents of the war-torn southeast of Ukraine on August 12. The cargo contains some 2,000 metric tons of humanitarian aid, including food (grain, sugar, baby food), medications, sleeping bags and portable power generators.

The trucks are still at the border with Ukraine as Kiev, Moscow and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are trying to reach an agreement on specific terms of the convoy’s travel in Ukraine.